• Home
  • Monthly Meetings
    • Monthly Meeting
    • Judges
    • Submission Upload
  • Membership
  • Assignment Gallery
  • Events
  • Announcements
  • Contact us
fStops Camera Club

Our first Lightroom User's group meeting was a success!

1/24/2020

 
Lightroom User’s Group
Hello fellow Lightroom Classic users.  Our first meeting was a success!  Eight people attended and we worked in small groups to solve problems and learn more about the program.
The next meeting will be on February 20 at The Village at 630 p.m.
This is a hands on learning opportunity.  Bring your laptops and we can work together.  You can also come to observe and share.
I hope to see you all at our next meeting.
Below you will find my lightroom workflow from November's workshop.  I hope it helps.
- Lloyd 
​
Lloyd’s Lightroom Workflow

What is Lightroom?
Lightroom is a program that supports your work in organizing, editing, adjusting and printing or publishing your work. The Lightroom catalog is where everything you do is stored as a database. Each adjustment that you make is recorded. The actual image stored on your hard drive remains unchanged.  This is what differentiates Lightroom from other editing programs.


When do I use Photoshop?
I use Photoshop when the editing I need to do is more difficult in Lightroom. Generally it involves the use of layers, extending the sides of the image, cloning or major repair.


  1. Shoot your images in raw format, if you can.  This gives you complete control of the image in Lightroom.  Do not delete images using the camera, as it can cause your card to go bad.  Spend your time being in the moment with your camera and your subject.  Gather images.
  2. Remove the memory card from the camera and place it in your computer’s card reader.  It is likely that your software will try to download the pictures for you.  Don’t let it. 
  3. Copy the files to your “working” hard drive.  I have a laptop computer and I like to use an external hard drive for my photos.  This leaves the internal drive free for applications.  I have a folder called Photos.  Within Photos there is a folder for each year (for example, 2018).  Within the folder for the year, create a new folder.  Name it using yyyymmdd format.  This system will keep your folders in date order within the year.  Copy all the images into this folder.  Chronological is the most basic level of organizing images.
  4. Open Lightroom and import your images into the Lightroom catalog.  Use the import button and select the folder where you have placed your images.  Click the import button.  Lightroom will add these image locations to its catalog and place a small image there.
  5. Flag images that do not meet your quality standards.  Be sure you are in the library module of Lightroom.  I like to use the single image view and see one image at a time.  You can flag you images as “Flagged”, “Not Flagged”, or “Rejected”.  Any image that is out of focus, has weak composition, poor exposure, or just does not work is “Rejected”.   Any image the really impresses, is “Flagged” (maybe 20%).  Images that are technically correct are not marked.  Work from the first shot to the last.  Be brutal, the more “Flagged” images you have the less time you have to spend on any one of them.  Save yourself for only the best ones.  I usually keep about 20% between “Flagged” and “Not Flagged”.
  6. Delete the rejected images.  The last option on the Photo Menu is Delete Rejected.  I select the Delete from Disk option.  These images will be removed from Lightroom and from the hard drive. 
  7. Backup your folder onto a separate hard drive.  Use your computer’s file management program for this task.
  8. Use Keywords to identify the location where the images were taken.  Select the images that were from the same location and give them that name.  I have a keyword called Place.  Within that keyword, I have created other keywords to be more specific.  For instance, Place, California, Coastal South, Ventura.  When I select Ventura the program will automatically apply the keywords to the levels above.
  9. Next, give the images keywords to identify the subject.  For example, a sparrow, could have the following keywords, Animals, Birds, Sparrow.  The more specific the keywords, the easier it is to later find them. You may want to use other keywords for the type of photo, painterly, street, black and white, travel, etc.
  10. Move to the Develop module.   Generally, I work from top to bottom with the tools on the right side of the screen starting with the color balance.  Shooting in raw allows complete control over the color balance.  Next adjust the exposure so the histogram and the image look right.  Then use the white and black sliders to be sure the full range of light is available.  Then adjust the highlight and shadows sliders.  Move down to the Textur, Clarity, Dehaze, Vibrance and Saturation sliders.  Use them to further improve the image.  At this point, I may crop the image.  Then do any smaller adjustments like, cloning or healing spot, applying a gradient, or dodging or burning part of the image.
  11. Let the image rest.  Move on to another and do the above process.
  12. A day or week later review your work and see how you feel about it.  Continue to refine the very best ones by sharpening, or removing noise.  you may wish to add a vignette to darken the edges of the frame which can bring more attention to the subject.
  13. If need be, do further editing in Photoshop... 
  14. Publish your best using the export function in the File menu to make a file that can go onto the internet or print you image.  Work the dialogue box from top to bottom.  You can control where the image is saved, what it is called, how big the file will be and it’s quality, how it is sharpened or made ready to print, and so on.  I use a 6x4 inch jpg file at 240 pixels for internet posts, sharpened for the screen.  When sending images to Costco, I export to the desired size of the image, like 18x12 inch and have it sharpened for printing.  If using Costco, let them know that you do not want them to auto adjust your image.
  15. Print your own images from within Lightroom.  I like to do test print before doing a large print. I make two additional duplicates and give them a slightly different exposures.  I use an letter size paper and set it to make 3 or 4 small prints.   It gives me options to get the right exposure.  Once I have that, I can make my print at the larger size.

Lightroom User’s Group Meeting:  Thursday 6:30 p.m. at The Village in The Northridge Room .

1/18/2020

 
Hello fellow Lightroom Classic users.  This will be our first meeting.  The agenda is simple:  Share ideas, answers and learn.  Oh yes, have fun.
Bring your laptops and we can work together.
I would like to meet on the the third Thursday each month, but I was out of town last week.  However, I am open to what the group may want.  Terry Mendelson has volunteered to work with me to hep lead this group.  I would like at least one other person to help coordinate as well.
I hope to see you all this Thursday.

    Questions/Comments?

Submit

Announcement

1/6/2020

 
Next Meeting is an Open Assignment on January 9
Robert Fields will both judge the open assignment images and provide information about our February assignment "Shadows and Reflections.  Please submit your images by 8 p.m. on Monday January 6.

Membership Renewal
It is membership renewal time. Last year we added more photo events and learning opportunities for our members.  We expect to continue to provide learning, inspiration, recognition and friendship.  The fee is $40 and can be paid in cash or check at the  meeting. You may also renew on line via PayPal.  Here is the link: http://www.fstopscameraclub.com/membership.html

Lightroom Users Group
A group of our members went to an Adobe Lightroom workshop in December.   It was very helpful.  Afterward, I asked if there is an interest in having a Lightroom user's group.  It would be an open session where members could bring their laptops and work on photos together.  We are going to give it a go.  I hope to have the first meeting at The Village on Thursday, January 23 at 6:30 p.m.  People can bring their questions and together we can find answers and learn more about how to use the  program.  There will be a signup on our events page.  I would like to have a couple of people to act as organizers as we get started.  Please let me know if you are interested. 

Photo Event:  Ventura Harbor on January 24 at 2:30 p.m. 
We will look for ways to capture images for the February assignment of Shadows and Reflections in Ventura.   The harbor is right off the beach where there could be a great sunset.  The marina offers lots of reflections on the water and in the windows of the storefronts.  We are going in the early afternoon to catch the good light in the evening and to miss some of the traffic.  There are several good restaurants where those who want to have dinner can do so.  Look at fStops' event page to the sign up.

February 13 Assignment: Shadows and Reflections
Robert Fields will be back to judge your images . Here is the link to his website: https://www.robertfields.com.

March/April
Lesley Krane will be our judge. In March she will judge Open Images and provide insights for our April assignment of "Low Key/High Key Images". Here is the link to her website: http://lesleykrane.com
​

I look forward to seeing you all soon,
Lloyd Delaney

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018

    Categories

    All
    Facebook Posts
    General Announcement
    Newsletter
    Photo Challenges
    Thing To Photograph

    RSS Feed

EVENTS CALENDAR

Picture

EVENTS

Picture

ABOUT US

Picture

MEMBER GALLERIES

Picture

2022 BOARD OF DIRECTORS


PRESIDENT
Dan Katz

​
 VICE PRESIDENT

TREASURER
Joseph Abejon

SECRETARY
Sharon Sega
​​

​MEMBERS AT LARGE
Bill Debley
Terry Mendelson
Mike Gollom
Marc Epstein
​Marion Brown
Eilish Hathaway 
DIGITAL MEDIA
Glyn Sun
​

MEMBERSHIP

JUDGE COORDINATOR
Dan Katz
​

PHOTO EVENTS
Sharon Sega
​Lloyd Delaney


BOARD MEMBERS LOGIN - PASSWORD REQUIRED

CONTACT US

Submit
© 2014 fStops Camera Club. All rights reserved